My new classical minimalist album 'Social Astronomy' has just come out this morning. Over 75 mins or gradually and subtly changing instrumental lines leading to emergent patterns. Either relaxing and mindfulness enhancing, or horrendously irritating depending on your personal aesthetic.

It is far too easy to let the thin veneer of civilization slip away, but it is worth fighting for. For all those who died, for those still dying, and for those whose fate has yet to be decided. Holocaust Memorial Day. Never forget.

I'm very grateful to Banks Radio Australia for selecting our band Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate as finalists in their Album Of The Year award, and me as a finalist in their producer of the year award. Very grateful to all those taking the time to listen to support independent music and musicians.

We've got several exciting Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate and Malcolm Galloway gigs coming up that we'd be delighted to see you at, and also a new video to share with you.

Firstly we have a gig this Friday (15 April 2016) at the lovely Good Ship in Kilburn, London. We will be joining The Stick Figures, Atlantic Rising, Cassilda and Taylor Nathan in a psychadelic, rock, prog and blues gig promoted by Peace In The City.

Live music starts at 8. We are on at 10:15.

Peace In The City presents a night of psychedelic rocknroll, prog & blues with live music 8pm til 1130pm + DJ Maurice after til 4am.

Doors 7.30pm. £4 ADV / £5 Door.

The Good Ship, 289 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7JR

30 seconds from The Tricycle Theatre.

1 minute from Brondesbury train station. (North London line)

5 minutes from Kilburn tube station. (Jubilee)

https://www.facebook.com/events/521849707986728/

Then on Sunday 29 May there is a free all day rock music festival at Surya, near King's Cross, London. I'll be on at 1pm for a 30 min solo acoustic rock set. Free entry.

https://www.facebook.com/events/919173951533355/

I'm very excited to be able to let you know that on Friday 22 July 2016, 6-9pm The National Gallery will be having an evening of my classical minimalist music and video art. The evening includes live music performed with video projection, with performers including Malcolm Galloway, Mark Gatland (Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate) and Kathryn Thomas (Galliard Ensemble). The event will include premiere's of new works to be featured on Malcolm's new classical minimalist album to be released by Glass Castle Recordings in July 2016, including 'Dutch Flowers', a new multimedia work inspired by the history of floral painting in Holland and the link with behavioural economics and the manipulation of human behaviour by plant viruses. Free entry - all welcome. https://www.facebook.com/events/1646623732270028/

And on the subject of my minimalist music and video art, here is my latest video - Velocity. If you like it any sharing greatly appreciated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wBCzFPsWk

Hope you are all well,

Best wishes,

Malcolm Galloway

Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate

www.hatsoffgentlemen.com

PS - If you fancy listening to our stuff on Spotify, this is a playlist with both our rock music and my classical minimalist music - https://open.spotify.com/user/1120959481/playlist/0vY20mXqwfPe43afg17YC7. Any plays, shares, follows etc hugely appreciated.

It is an incredible honour to be considered on the same shortlist as some of prog rocks most inspiring musicians, including David Gilmour, Riverside, Steve Wilson and Spocks Beard. To actually win is gob-smacking.

“I love this album. When I listen to this album it pleases me no end, and not only does it please me in so many different ways, when I listen to the vocal it really does stir me and moves me incredibly. This album is wonderful. I want everyone to listen this on repeat, put your headphones on and get no distractions, just listen. It really does stir you, wake you up. And when he implores you with those lyrics, how can you turn that down? It is incredible, you can feel that emotion in that one line ['as I walk into the sun, carry me']. And for me that is the difference between this album and those other albums [David Gilmour, Spocks Beard, Steve Wilson, Riverside]. If you can’t make a connection with this, then I’m sorry, you can’t make a connection with music, because I love everything about this track, love this album, love this variety. That’s what progressive rock is all about – pushing the boundaries. It’s a wonderful thing and I have returned to it many times.” Steve Beastie.

Beastie's Rock Show

https://www.mixcloud.com/Beastie_/

https://open.spotify.com/album/45FWF8cNmsqpPqfoRMizVB

Thank you so much to Steve Beastie for all your support, and also thanks to my band colleagues for all their support and contributions, both on the recordings and in live gigs. I couldn't wish for a better bunch of people to play with.

Just in case you are suffering from a dearth of fractals, lakeside photography, or Pink Floyd covers - this is a new video to go with our (Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate's) cover of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. Featuring clips from Beachfront B-Roll: Free HD Stock Footage and beeple, plus my own fractal animations.

I'd be extremely grateful if you'd consider having a peek. If you like it, any sharing is always much appreciated.

Yesterday could easily have felt largely wasted - I spent the morning going to a hospital for a clinic appointment that turned out to have been cancelled.

I had arrived a bit early, so browsed the Welcome Institute's bookshop while waiting for the alleged clinic appointment. In my non-musical, non-film making life I teach medical students and postgraduate medical trainees. One of the topics that interests me is the philosophy of disease, the psychology of diagnosis, and communication in medicine. As I browsed, I noticed a slim volume - Susan Sontag's 'Illness as metaphor'. This isn't a new book - the now deceased author had first published the essay that makes up the bulk of this book in 1977 - but it retains a distinctive and fresh outlook on disease.

Her central argument is that using disease as a metaphor (for example the Romantic image of tuberculosis in 19th century opera) or the use of metaphors in our description of disease (such as the military metaphors in the war against cancer) are dangerous. Dictatorships have justified the use of violent repression using the metaphor of cutting out the cancer in our society, and it could be argued that the medical profession at times has been total waging war on a malignant enemy, focusing on cure at all costs, regardless of the costs of friendly fire.

Susan Sontag had breast cancer at the time of writing the book. This however is not a description of her personal experiences. It has an austere, impersonal, elegant intellectual rigor. It's lack of sentimentality is bold and, to me, engaging. Some of the medicine may have slightly dated, but the overall message, that we should be aware of how the metaphors we use shape our thinking, is still a profound challenge our use of language. Highly recommended to those interested in medicine or how language shapes our view of the world.

Malcolm Galloway

(In the unlikely event that anyone buys the book via this link I would get a small commission).